My Drawing in the Getty

Hey, I have a drawing in the Getty Museum! Well, sort of. During my MFA studies, my friends Ron Spears, Mike Wimmer and I had a chance to spend the afternoon at the Getty.

l-r; Mike Wimmer, Ron Spears and me drawing in the Getty

On a whim we decided to sketch for a while in the sketching gallery that they have set up in one of the galleries where you can draw from a selection of paintings and sculptures on display. We all settled in to draw the dynamic marble sculpture of the discus thrower that was in the center of the gallery. It was a fun experience and if you ever get a chance to do it, I highly recommend it.

Me drawing away at the Getty

After 30 or 40 minutes, we hung our drawings up on the display board and left them there for all to enjoy. Since all drawings that are left become the property of the Getty, I technically have a piece of my art in the Getty collection!

Well I suppose it's possible that it was only briefly in the Getty collection before it made its way to the L.A. Department of Sanitation collection, but who knows? maybe it is still there. One can hope right?

Sticking To The Thumbnail Sketch

 

Thumbnail sketch

One of the things that frustrates my students and consequently me as a teacher is how often a successful thumbnail drawing is abandoned in the sketching process. I will often look at a good thumbnail and then, when I see revised drawings, wonder what happened to the flow, design, rhythm, etc. that I remember from the first sketch  Granted, some changes may be intentional and for the better, but if you lose the essence of the thumbnail- that thing that attracted you to the design and got you excited in the first place- then you are essentially starting over.

 

I always thumbnail out my idea first, before taking any photos. This allows me to solidify in my mind things like angles,  pose, lighting and basic composition. I then use my sketch to dictate how the photo shoot goes.

 

I match my models as closely as I can to the thumbnail idea. Sometimes the photo shoot suggests other options, and it's a good idea to take those photos as well, but I rarely go into a photo shoot without solid sketches.

 

If that happens, then I am letting the camera dictate the design of my piece and not my imagination. I think my imagination is usually superior to the mindlessness of a camera, so I try to not let the camera decide things for me.

 

I also take lots of detail shots as sometimes the angles and poses in my thumbnail are not comfortable or realistic for my models to capture in real life. I use the detail shots to get the info I need. I then take my thumbnail, lay tracing paper over the top and make my final drawing using details from multiple photos. Failure to use tracing paper in this stage of the process is the downfall of many a good student thumbnail.

 

I enlarge my thumbnail and use it as the "bones" of my design. I add the details or the "muscles and skin" over the top on the tracing paper. I can still see the original design and thus I can follow it, preserving the space relationships, rhythm and compositions that I carefully created in the thumbnail sketch.

 

If I had abandoned my thumbnail during the creation of this piece, I would likely not have been as happy with the result as I am. As you can see from the photos, none of them match my drawing exactly. I had to rely on information from all the photos as well as my thumbnail to arrive at the final sketch. There were even modifications in the final painting stage that were made to reflect more accurately the vision I had in the thumbnail stage. Trust your thumbnail. It usually does not lie because, if done well, it contains the bare essence of what you hope to express.

There is a great book by Ron Schick about how Norman Rockwell used reference photos called Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera. It shows how Rockwell's process very closely mirrors what I and countless other artists use to get the information for their paintings.

What The Rain Yields

In this story, a heavy rain coaxes an abundance of night crawlers out of the ground and yields a bucketful of potential worm sales for this young lady and her brothers. The only problem was the fact that they choose to take the car without permission to deliver the worms to the bait stand. Needless to say, their parents were both distraught and disappointed when the intrepid night crawler salesmen return home. This account sparked worm hunting memories of my own which I shared in a post yesterday.

Check out the process from thumbnail to finish here:

Catching Night Crawlers

Mmmm, tasty. This little spot will go along with another full page and half page for a magazine story revolving around catching night crawlers. I was excited to take on the project for sentimental reasons. For several summers when I was growing up, my brothers, my father and I would catch night crawlers to tell to fishermen (and to fish with ourselves). On the nights when we would flood irrigate my grandma's yard, the worms would come out in droves to get air and escape the soggy ground. With flashlight in hand, we would sneak up on the stretched out critters and grab them before they could slink back underground, sometimes catching more than one in a single snatch. The contest was always on to see who could capture the most and we kept strict numbers. There were countless nights in which we individually caught ten dozen worms or more. In our back yard we built an underground worm corral. it had a mesh screen bottom so they would not burrow their way out. We filled it with peat moss, kept it damp and fed the worms a little cornmeal from time to time to keep them fat and happy.Our customers loved to buy our chubby night crawlers and we were happy to take their cash. Can't remember how much money we made. I'm sure it wasn't that much, but it was our money and we were proud of it.

Star Wars Visionary Ralph McQuarrie Dies

Artist Ralph McQuarrie has passed away at the age of 82. McQuarrie will be remembered by most people for his work on a single project - Star Wars. His visionary concept paintings defined the look, feel and characters of the entire Star Wars universe and inspired countless artists, myself included.

Born in Gary, Indiana, McQuarrie began his career doing technical illustration for Boeing and then transitioned to work designing movie posters. He also created animations for CBS News coverage of the Apollo space missions

It may even be argued that without his genius, George Lucas may never have been able to convince a studio to take a chance on his wild eyed "space opera". Ralph McQuarrie was originally contacted by Lucas in 1975 to do some paintings based on the script that were intended to pitch the film to studios because he felt there would be a better chance executives would open their wallets if they could catch the vision of what the as of yet untitled film was all about.

"I just did my best to depict what I thought the film should look like. I really liked the idea. I didn't think the film would ever get made. My impression was it was too expensive. There wouldn't be enough of an audience. It's just too complicated. But George knew a lot of things I didn't know."

Lucas for his part, credited McQuarrie for creating the visual language of Star Wars. 

 "His genial contribution, in the form of unequalled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'do it like this'." 

McQuarrie went on to create concept designs for the original Battlestar Galactica television series and theatrical blockbusters Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The Extraterrestrial. In 1985, he won an Academy Award for for visual effects in the film Cocoon.

I was ten years old when Star Wars hit the theaters. My parents thought the film looked silly and didn't want to take me. I made a deal with them to do a certain amount of work around the house in exchange for a trip to the theater. By the time the intro scrolled up and that endless Star Destroyer soared overhead, I had seen a lot of pictures of the film, including Ralph McQuarrie's visionary paintings.

It is a testament to his brilliance that I was initially disappointed that Luke didn't actually get to fight Darth Vader as depicted in the truly dynamic concept painting at the top of this post. 

I loved the film and it has endured for me, but it was the artwork that fueled me, igniting a passion that carries me to this day. My art may not bear much resemblance to anything McQuarrie created, but the idea that you could conjure something so real seemingly from nothing, stuck with me.

This sentiment is echoed on the Art of Ralph McQuarrie main page.

His influence on design will be felt forever. There is no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say...
"that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted."

McQuarrie, was a true legend in the field of film and illustration. We will all miss you and your brilliant vision Ralph.

Thank You Dr. Seuss

Pink Dog Fish- 4" x 6" digital by Greg Newbold.

I'm not sure what the intention of putting the bite collar on this poor Dog Fish was since there is no obvious injury and he probably can't bend around far enough to bite himself anyway. But the result was that he pretty much just looks like a dork. A Pink Dork Fish. In case you have not noticed, I have a strange thing for goofy fish. They seem to creep into my drawings and paintings on a regular basis. After some thought, I believe I have deciphered the source- Dr. Seuss who would have turned 108 today.

As a youngster, I would draw pictures all the time and among my favorite books to draw from were Dr. Seuss books, particularly, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish and McElligot's Pool. I remember drawing them for hours on end along with my older brother. He was really pretty good, but put drawing aside when he discovered basketball.

I on the other hand kept doing art and I eventually ended up where I am today. Seuss' work is as relevant and entertaining today as it was when I first copied old and new fish from its pages. I'm not sure if every Theodore Seuss Geisel's 44 titles are still in print, but I suspect they are. So of all the early influences on this budding artist, Dr. Seuss endures in my memory. Thank you Dr Seuss and happy birthday!

Check out entertaining wisdom of Dr. Seuss at Artwife Needs A Life

Robert Fawcett on Drawing

Defeat and Death on Battan by Robert Fawcett

When asked in a 1960 Famous Artist Magazine interview how important drawing was to the total result of a picture, Robert Fawcett replied with the following quote:

Drawing constitutes the fountainhead and substance of painting and sculpture and architecture...Let him who has attained the possession of this be assured that he possesses a great treasure.
-Michelangelo

After my last post, I realized there was much more to share from the book Robert Fawcett- The Illustrator's Illustrator (which I highly recommend by the way).  I figured I'd post a little more today. The following is a breakdown of Fawcett's drawing style and mark making along with a few quotes from the above noted interview.

Q:What is the use of a picture anyway?

A: What use is a Beethoven symphony? To feed the spirit, to feed the soul.

Q: Do you believe artists should be trained?

A: They must pursue constant and relentless drawing. Being able to draw only comes about by drawing. Of course training will give the artist hints. But in the last analysis, the artist develops himself.

Q: Must an artist have talent?

A: I do not think that artists are naturally born...Sweat and application will develop the artist. An artist who wants badly enough to do it will do it anyway. It will be impossible to dissuade him. If students want to be spoon fed, this is not likely to be a real desire on their part to be artists, but merely a whim.

Q: What do you hope to communicate to those who see your work?

A: I would like them so see a sense of positive organization in my picture. If you see a picture that is well organized you have no trouble looking at it. This is the logical outcome of drawing. Drawing is seeing. And what we do is create a kind of order in a picture that makes it easy for people to look at.

On the art of seeing:

I'm just a built in eye. I can see with such clarity. But the hand always falters between the eye and the paper. ...You can learn to see by seeing....If I have a trained eye, I will record a more comprehensive picture because I know how to translate what I see. there should be the least amount of interference between the eye, the brain and the hand. When you have exhausted conventional seeing, you can go into more interesting things.

Q: What is the best advice you can give an aspiring illustrator?

A: If you want to be an artist, you will be an artist. If you do not become one, there is nobody to blame but yourself. The techniques can be learned and should be learned thoroughly. Then comes the relentless application of your knowledge.

Many thanks to Manuel Auad of Auad Publishing for his gracious permission to share these pictures and excerpts.